Guided Tours

Get to Know the Museum with a Free Guided Tour

Offered seven days a week (except Monday holidays and some community days), and free with Museum admission, some tours explore highlights throughout the Museum, while others focus on specific areas.

All tours meet at the Sharf Visitor Center, and most tours last approximately one hour; Three Masterpieces from Asia, Three Masterpieces from the Ancient World, and 3 in 30 Minutes are half hour tours.

For more information, please call 617-369-3395. If you are interested in scheduling a group guided tour, please get information and make reservations in Adult and University Groups.

Tours in English

Monday–Friday

Note: Starting on August 1, there will be a Highlights of the Museum Collections tour at 3 pm, in place of the Art of the Americas tour.

Saturday–Sunday

Foreign Language Tours

Français

Chaque mercredi (every Wednesday), 11:15 am

Présentation des collections du Musée

Note: the July 3 tour is canceled.

Español

Todos los primeros Miercoles de cada mes (every first Wednesday), 6:30 pm

Introducción a las Colecciones de Arte del Museo

Made possible by The Lowell Institute.

Tours in American Sign Language

Saturday, July 27, 2019, 1–2:30 pm: Toulouse Lautrec and the Stars of Paris

MFA Outdoor Tour: Art, Architecture, and Landscape

May 1–October 12, 2019
Wednesdays and Saturdays, 11 am
Meet at Sharf Visitor Center

Join us for an hourlong outdoor walking tour of the Museum and its Fenway neighborhood, offered from May to October. Learn about nearby buildings and their architecture, along with fascinating information about the Back Bay Fens and other sites in the Fenway neighborhood.

A Feeling for Form

A Feeling for Form is a program that provides access for visitors of all ages who are blind or have low vision. This program provides an opportunity for tours of the collections through tactile exploration of selected sculpture and furniture, and through verbal description, tactile diagrams, and objects for artworks that cannot be touched. Trained Museum volunteers and Access staff lead these tours. We are currently expanding program offerings; call for more information. There is no fee for this program, but pre-registration is required. For registration, contact Hannah Goodwin at 617-369-3189, or e-mail access@mfa.org.

ESOL Tours

The MFA welcomes students at least 18 years old who are learning English and who are participating in an English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) course. The MFA has specially trained guides who provide tours for all levels of ESOL students.

ESOL tours are generally designed to be an introduction to the Museum and to include a selection of objects from the American, European, Asian, and Ancient World collections. ESOL guides are also able to work with ESOL instructors to customize tours that focus on particular parts of the Museum’s collections or that incorporate specific objects. Perform a collection search to check the availability of any specific work.

Request a Tour

One-hour, interactive ESOL tours are led by trained guides. Requests should be made at least four weeks in advance of the group visit by filling out the ESOL Tour Request Form.

Admission

ESOL tours are free. MFA group admission is $18 for students (chaperones are admitted free). Full-time undergraduate students from member schools receive free admission to the MFA.

Free admission is offered to students enrolled in ESOL programs at nonprofit agencies and community organizations. To be eligible, the recipient must be a nonprofit 501(C)3 organization that is located in New England and that would otherwise find admission cost a barrier to visiting the Museum of Fine Arts.

MFA Guide

If you prefer to explore on your own, create an individualized tour with our MFA Guide featuring information about more than 500 objects.

Take a tour and explore with a touch screen player. Get insights from curators, conservators, artists, and others on exhibitions and artwork through images, audio, and video. Available at all ticket desks, Sharf Visitor Center, and entrance to Gund Gallery (LG31) when an exhibition is on view.

Nonmembers $6; members $5; kids 17 and under $4. Free for visitors who are Deaf or blind.